The Age of the Punisher
by Flashraven
Summary: Awoken from a deep sleep of three decades into a peaceful Utopian future, Frank Castle and Dinah Madani are horrified to discover that their two greatest enemies are also on the loose and wreaking havoc once again on the streets of New York City. Alongside two old friends, the pair set off in pursuit, while at the same trying to adjust to their new surroundings


**I know the last thing I should be doing is starting another story, as my main project, From the Shadows to the Open, co-joined with fellow author and my new best buddy the great and wonderful Aragorn II Elessar, is my main priority, but I've had this in my head for months now and I just can't resist starting it at least.**

**I can well and truthfully say, thanks to watching its two seasons on Netflix, and having also enjoyed him in Daredevil season 2, that Marvel's The Punisher is now without a doubt one of my number one favourite shows of all time, Jon Bernthal is nothing but absolutely amazing, brilliant and awesome as Frank Castle, hell, he was literally made to BE Frank Castle, just as, for just one other example, Hugh Jackman was for the role of Logan, the mighty Wolverine. Everything he does in both seasons of his show, everyone he goes up against- Rawlins and Billy in season 1, Pilgrim and the Schultzes and Billy again in season 2- or mixes with- David Liebermann and his family, the bar woman called Beth and her son Rex, Amy Bendix and Dinah Madani- along the way, I just love, love, LOVE.**

**Which is why, and because me and Aragorn Elessar are both lovers of Sylvester Stallone's movies, Demolition Man among them, I have personally developed this idea for a Punisher fic with the theme of Demolition Man, and intend to get it started. To help you guys with where it will kick off from, Punisher season 1 ran as it did, but only the stuff involving Pilgrim, the Schultzes and Amy happened in season 2, but everything with Billy and his new lover girl Dr Krista Dupont has only just started, and Billy isn't amnesiac in this and remembers what Frank did to him in the season 1 finale, and Amy hasn't left and is still hanging around with Frank, so now you hopefully know what to expect.**

**And finally, to finish on a personal note, I should helpfully warn you guys that I recently brought my own flat, or at least one that was up for rent, so I will be getting busier IRL with a lot of things for that very soon, and some days I might not be able to write at all, but rest assured I will try not to be away for long periods if I can.**

**Anyway, enough from me. Lets delve into this, and I hope you guys enjoy this fic so much, considering, as I have said, I've been planning and thinking of so many ideas for this story for the last few months now. Feel free to review and let me know what you all think of it**

* * *

_New York, late 2019_

The Chinook helicopter began its descent out of the night sky towards the searchlight lit industrial area, most of which was littered with industrial junk and dozens of car wrecks, some of them burning, with a large factory building dominating the site, towards which a large number of NYPD and army vehicles made their way, weaving their way through and around the junk, men and women, dressed in either police or army fatigues, running alongside.

In the cockpit of the helicopter, one of the two pilots, the white man seated on the right of the second, a black man, spoke. "You know, there's something about this mission that I just don't understand," he said.

The black man, Curtis Hoyle, former Navy special amphibious reconnaissance corpsman (SARC), amputee thanks to an Iraqi suicide bomber, and counsellor to fellow PTSD suffering veterans, turned to him. "And what's that?" he asked.

"Well I don't understand just where we're goin' or why the hell we're doing it," his fellow pilot answered back.

"It's cos you're doing a good deed." A well built man with the body of a soldier toughened by years of experience on the battlefield, wearing a military-grade bulletproof vest with an angry looking skull spray painted onto it over a black long sleeved shirt, blue jeans and black combat boots, spoke the words in a deep growly voice as he came forward, leaning into the cockpit.

Curtis nodded. "Wanna give Howards a heads up on why we're doing this, eh, Frank?" he said, addressing the man with the skull vest.

Frank Castle, also known very famously as the Punisher, nodded also before turning the other pilot, Howards. "The bastard we're going after hijacked a municipal bus carrying 30 kids on their way to school earlier today with some of his gang," he explained, "And me and Madani have a pretty good feeling as to just which bastard it is and where he and his buddies are keeping the kids."

"And, er, just who is this guy you're refering to, eh, Castle?" Howards asked.

"Russo. Billy Russo," Frank snarled in reply and retreated back into the holding bay, grabbing and unzipping the green shoulder bag he had brought with him, bringing out his Remington 870 MSC shotgun and loading it with some cartridges, before slinging a bandolier loaded with a good number of other cartridges over his chest. His belt also held two pistols, one in a sheath on either side, and several ammo clips for both.

"Who is this 'Billy Russo', huh?" Howards asked.

Curtis shook his head. "Oh you don't wanna know even the half of it," he said in a serious tone, "The guy played a huge part in Frank losing his family in that shootout between different gangs in Central Park a few years ago, and Frank and Agent Madani still have a big score each to settle with him, hence why they've been chasing him for months now."

Howards' eyes widened and he shook his head. "Damn," was all he said.

As the helicopter neared the abandoned factory, passing over the vehicles and troops on the ground that were spreading out across the entire surrounding area, taking up positions in battle formation, Frank looked to the woman with long curly dark brown hair and hard blue eyes, dressed in black army fatigues, boots and Kevlar helmet, sitting on one of the benches where soldiers would sit when being taken on battle missions, an M4A1 carbine, complete with vertical forward hand grip and Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight (ACOG) scope, resting on her legs.

"You all set, Madani?" Frank asked her.

Special Agent Dinah Madani of the FBI stood up, taking the M4A1 in her hands. "Lets go get 'im, Castle," she answered determinedly.

Frank nodded, her words being the only answer he needed. Together, they marched to the rear holding bay door and Frank reached up with his right hand, yanking down the lever which opened it from the inside. The door slowly lowered, allowing the wind and cold of the night air to rush in, blowing the strands of Dinah's hair not held down by her helmet.

In the cockpit, an electronic beeping indicating that the helicopter's rear door had been opened sounded out, and Curtis sighed, knowing what his old war friend and Agent Madani intended to do. Together, he and Howard guided the helicopter to the end of its approach to the factory and turned it to the right, they and it now bathed fully in the blue white of the searchlights mounted on the roof of the building.

Suddenly, as Curtis and Howards set about settling the helicopter into a hover, machine guns positioned at intervals along the roof below opened up, all directing their fire upwards towards the Chinook. Dozens of bullets whizzed past, some getting extremely and dangerously close to the helicopter, threatening to take out a vital piece of the aircraft, but Curtis and Howards payed no attention, both of them focused on hovering the helicopter as close as they dared made possible to the building.

In the rear, Frank hooked a thick rope over an overhead railing right inside the entrance of the open door, then did the same with a second rope before pulling the cargo sling strap, to which a second hook at the end of his rope was attached, over his head and chest, then pulled the strap in as tightly as possible as was needed. He then took ahold of the strap attached, also by hook, to the end of the second rope and turned to Dinah, who allowed him to help her with it.

"Ready?" Frank shouted over the noise of the Chinook's twin blades, the wind and the newly added machinegun fire.

"Send a couple of maniacs in to catch a couple of maniacs," Dinah shouted back.

Frank laughed. "I wouldn't say we're that, Madani," he yelled. Dinah managed a laugh herself before the two of them, Dinah with M4A1 held tightly in both hands, Frank his Remington in his left, turned back to the open entrance of the helicopter, tensed themselves, and then leapt forward, dropping out and descending rapildly towards the abandoned building below. "Russo," Frank bellowed as they did so.

After several seconds, both ropes reached the end of their length and pulled tight, Frank and Dinah being jerked up as a result. As they did so, one of Russo's ex-veteran members positioned on the roof next to a searchlight fire his weapon, a Micro Uzi submachine gun, in their direction, but Dinah fired a burst from her M4A1, bringing him down.

Still holding his Remington in his left hand, Frank drew a knife with his right, and with a single cut freed himself from his sling, dropping the last little bit onto the concrete roof before running over to Dinah and releasing her from her own with a second cut, catching her as he did so and lowering her gently to the ground, receiving a nod of thanks from her which he returned.

As the two of them turned and began heading at a run towards where they knew where they needed to go, another one of Russo's gang appeared, firing at them. As Frank and Dinah, Frank leading, ran up and over a piece of wreckage, Frank released one, then a second, booming shot from his Remington, blasting the man off his feet, blood pouring from the two bullet wounds as he fell back, dead.

At last, Frank saw exactly what they were looking for, a square shaped structure with a metal service door set in it, their intended way into the building, ahead of them, but as he and Dinah hared across the roof towards them bullets from another submachine gun kicked up the concrete just behind their feet. Not stopping till they'd reached the door, Dinah twisted round, M4A1 raised, and fired at the shooter, another Russo posse member, but the man dived to the side, disappearing behind a pile of wreckage which would provide him with cover.

"Come on, Madani," Frank shouted, having kicked the door open with a single kick of his right boot, revealing a long out of use elevator shaft, the cables still attached as they were both to the ceiling and the broken service lift way down at the bottom. Grabbing Dinah's sleeve with his hand, Frank pushed her through the open door and followed her in just as the gang member rose up from his cover and fired at them again.

Slinging her rifle over her shoulder, Dinah jumped and grabbed onto one of the lift cables and slid down, her hands very thankfully protected by her gloves preventing her skin from getting burned by the sensation, Frank following her down on another cable. The gang member appeared at the top of the shaft through the open service door, looked down and then fired towards Frank and Dinah with his submachine gun. Not looking up, Frank and Dinah slid down the last distance of cable, reaching the small long out of order dust filled control room at the bottom, and with a kick from Frank's feet that broke the window of the door leading into it, they at last burst into the main factory itself.

Straightening up again, guns raised, they advanced down the short corridor, lit by a single overhead light, past a second door on their right, then Frank placed a hand on Dinah's chest and flattened himself and her against the right wall next to another closed door with a glass window just before an open doorless entrance, with a flight of stairs leading down on their left.

Transferring his Remington to his left hand, Frank muttered "One, two," under his breath, then lashed out with his free hand, backhanding a man, another of Russo's crew, viciously across the face as he prepared to come through the entrance. The man's nose broke from the impact of Frank's strike, his sunglasses falling off his face, blood pouring down his face as Frank twisted himself forward a hundred and eighty degrees to face him directly, grabbing the man by his leather jacket and pulling him forwards, shoving him through the glass window of the door next to Dinah, before yanking the gang member back and throwing him violently with just his left arm, the man tumbling down the stairs.

"Nice job, Castle," Dinah commented, having witnessed the whole thing with impressed respect.

"Thanks," Frank answered simply. He nodded forwards with his head, "Come on, let's go." Together, they ran down the next corridor, approaching another one of Russo's veteran members who had his back to them, firing his machine gun out through one of the glass lacking windows of the old factory at the military and NYPD forces surrounding the building

Both of them were unaware that they were being observed that very moment. A man, his face horribly disgured by long stitched up scars, glared hatefully at one of two television monitors, live cameras covering all of the corridor outside the large junk filled room, in which a large number of fully loaded petrol drums were stored, where he and the only other person in there with him, a woman with long black hair, hands massaging his shoulders, were standing together, as Frank and Dinah reached the member, Frank punching him in the small of the back, the man gasping loudly from the blow before Frank swung his right hand in a forward knife strike into the member's face, dazing him more before grabbing his jacket and throwing him against a wooden crate, knocking him out before he and Dinah continued their run, knowing there was no time to hang around.

"Looks like we're expecting a little company," the woman, Dr Krista Dumont, said.

"Well, we wouldn't wanna keep the reception committee waiting long, would we, babe?" Billy Russo, now also known, thanks to his ruined face, as the Jigsaw, asked sneeringly as he turned away from the TV cameras and walked over to the largest piece of furniture in the room, a large metal table, and picked up a dagger, its shining blade tip sharpened to its most lethal level.

"No indeed," Dumont said, laughing as Russo strolled casually over to one of the large stacks of fuel drums, then plunged the dagger into one, then a second, then a third fuel drum, petrol pouring out from the punctured holes and splashing onto the floor, the puddle widening with every second as Russo placed the dagger back down on the table.

Not less than half a minute later, Frank and Dinah appeared, skidding to a halt at the end of the corridor they had just run down, then quickly covering the few steps to the open doorway of the room where Russo and Dumont were. The two of them, Frank still in front, flattened themselves against the doorframe, guns raised and ready, then, they burst into the room, aiming their weapons towards the two individuals they had hoped very much to see here, sitting behind the metal table, Dumont in Russo's lap, her arms around his neck. Neither Frank nor Dinah noticed for the moment that they were now standing in a huge puddle of petrol.

"Russo," Frank snarled as the two former best friends stared hatefully at each other, the sight of Frank's skull vest bringing back flashbacks of what Frank had done to his face to Russo.

* * *

The year before

_"You're gonna learn about pain," Frank snarled as he slammed a dazed Billy's head into the glass, making him groan in pain._

_"You're gonna learn about loss," Frank snarled further, slamming Billy's face against the glass again, the other man emitting another groan of pain._

_His right hand still clutching Billy's hair, Frank knelt next to him. "Every morning I look for 'em, Bill," he said in his deep growl. Billy looked at him, "I look for 'em, but then I remember. It's gonna be the same for you." Frank's hand grabbed the back of Billy's hair again, "When you look at your ugly mangled face, you're gonna remember what you did. You'll remember, Bill." Then Frank slammed Billy's face in again, before releasing the other man's hair and standing fully up again._

_"You're gonna remember me." Frank grabbed Billy's head in both hands and with a small roar, slammed him into the glass once more, and this time shattering and completely ruining the handsome face of his family's murderer._

* * *

"You told me I'd remember what you did to me, didn't you, Frank," Russo half shouted, "Well I do. I remember it _every single time _I look in the mirror."

"I personally took care of him whilst he was lying there in that hospital bed, recovering from the damage you inflicted on him, Castle," Dumont spat at Frank, "And I aided in helping him escape from that place."

"I shoulda killed you," Frank roared, "That was the mistake I now regret not doing." His mouth twisted further in its pursed lipped snarl, his eyes blazing, "But not now. This time, I will finish it."

"But first," Dinah now spoke up with as much contempt as Frank. She took a step forward, her M4A1 carbine very steady in her hands, "Where're the kids?"

Russo and Dumont looked at each other in mock puzzlement, knowing this would anger Frank and Dinah all the more, then stood up. "What kids?" Dumont asked sweetly, Russo reaching under the table to take hold of a large gas cylinder with a nozzle attached in his right hand as he and Dumont walked slowly round the side of the table.

"The kids whose bus you and your posse seized hold of this morning and brought here to this shithole of a place," Dinah said, gesturing briefly around her with a movement of her head.

"Where are they?" Frank snarled, repeating the question.

"Ah yes, those kids," Russo answered in fake remembrance, deliberately taunting them further, "Well they're... Fuck you," he said, making a waving gesture with his free left hand, "The kids are gone." He and Dumont cackled. "You see we told everyone- police, the Feds, even the goddam postmen and milkmen- 'Look, nobody comes down here'," Russo went on, "And all of 'em figured it out. But the goddam school runners just wouldn't listen." Russo tapped his head with his left index finger as he spoke the last three words, smirking at the same time as he did so.

"Last time, both of you," Dinah growled, her clenched teeth bared in a snarl of hatred as deep as Frank's, the glare from her own eyes enough to slice someone in two, her aim not wavering in the slightest.

"Where are the kids?" Frank snarled.

"To hell with 'em, Franky boy," Russo spat, "This is between us all." He gestured to himself, Dumont, Frank and Dinah with his free hand.

Frank cocked his Remington, the exchange of it plain for all to hear very clearly. "Damn right," he growled.

"Ooh I wouldn't do that if I were you, Castle," Dumont said.

"And why's that?" Dinah asked.

"Cos you're both up to your asses in gasoline," Russo said, the glee on his face spreading more as he pressed the On button on the gas cylinder, the end of the nozzle emitting a tiny blue flame, "Kill me, and this whole place will go up." He cackled with laughter again as Frank and Dinah stiffened, looking down at the liquid their boots were standing in, before then seeing the petrol still gushing out of the drums Russo had punctured earlier with his dagger. Then they turned again to glare killer daggers at Russo and Dumont.

"We'll set your asses on fire," Dumont said just as mockingly, giggling as Russo put a cigarette between his lips, turned on the cylinder again and used the tip of the little flame to light the cigarette before then removing it without taking a single drag on it, as he was of course not a smoker. His finger then once again released the cylinder button, the nozzle flame going out, and the second it did so, Frank's Remington and Dinah's M4A1 were up again, the barrels aimed straight at their heads.

Holding the lit cigarette between his left thumb and middle finger, Russo looked around before looking to Frank and Dinah again. "You know the old saying, Franky boy," he said to Frank, "Where there's fire, there's smoke." With that, Russo flicked his thumb and finger, and the cigarette landed between Frank's left boot and Dinah's right. At once, flames erupted into life, and grew as more of the petrol went up. Frank and Dinah backed away from the already intense heat, but Russo and Dumont's laughter at seeing the two of them panic against the fire finally made them snap. Throwing their guns aside, their faces filled with all the hatred in the world as is possible to be displayed on a person's face, Frank and Dinah charged forward, springing themselves forward so that they flew over the flames.

Frank grabbed Russo by the shoulders and forced him backwards against and onto the metal table he and Dumont had been sitting only a couple or so minutes ago, Frank's hands now going to Russo's jacket collar. Meanwhile, Dinah crashed into Dumont, sending them both to the floor, Dinah on top of Dumont. Dumont left hooked Dinah in the face, but Dinah landed several left and right punches into the other woman's face before Dumont left elbowed Dinah hard in the jaw, sending Dinah rolling off her onto the floor.

Russo lashed out in an upwards double punch into Frank's mouth, Frank jerking up instinctively from the blow, before Russo placed his hands on the back of Frank's head and used his bodily momentum to roll throw Frank off him and the table and onto the floor, Frank landing on his backside as Russo jumped down.

Meanwhile outside, the police and army forces had reached the wire-mesh fence which blocked the way directly to the old factory. Several surviving members of Russo's war veteran gang stood at intervals along it, and now they opened fire with their weapons at the approaching soldiers and police officers, who returned fire themselves, cutting down the gang members with ease.

As Frank got up again, Russo leapt, swinging his right arm in a punch which landed in Frank's face, Frank's head snapping to the right from the impact. Russo grabbed Frank's shirt sleeve with his left hand and tried the right punch again, but this time Frank was ready. He blocked the swing expertly with his left hand, slapping it out the way, before lower section punching Russo hard in the stomach, then adjusting his postion so that he was behind Russo before following up the punch with a left hander to the ribs, Russo gasping from the impact.

Closer to the flickering flames, Dinah and Dumont got to their feet, glaring hatefully at each other before Dumont came at Dinah. But she was just a former hospital doctor with only a few learned known moves, whereas Dinah was a top class highly trained former FBI now CIA agent, with years of martial arts training, fighting and escape techniques behind her, and now as Dumont threw a clumsy left hook at her face, she used that to her advantage, grabbing the other woman's left wrist with her left hand before elbowing her hard in the face with her right arm, then going back on it with a savage back move, the boney tip of her elbow landing hard and square in Dumont's nose. Dumont gasped as she felt her nose break, blood pouring down over her lips, but Dinah didn't give her time to recover, grabbing the shoulders of Dumont's hoodie and kneeing her in the chest with her right leg before then raising both hands above her head and swinging them down together into Dumont's shoulder blades, sending Dumont face down on the floor.

Frank grabbed Russo's jacket collar and forced him up to face him. "Where are they, Russo?" he shouted, "Where are the kids?"

"Ah, now where did me and Dumey put 'em?" Russo said, looking away as he pretended to still be mockingly dumb as he had acted earlier. He giggled and looked back at the glowering Frank. "I swear, I'd lose my head if it weren't attached to my neck," he went on, giggling even more.

"Yeah well, I'll keep that in mind before I plunge my knife through your eye and into your fucking brain so as I can feel your blood run down my fingers," Frank snarled, left hooking Russo viciously in the face, causing him to bend over from the impact. Now Frank's attention was drawn by a new and very unmistakable sound, that of the roar of flames growing in volume as something else was taken ahold by them, and he knew, as he twisted round to look over his shoulder in the direction of where it was coming from, with absolutely certainty that he and Dinah's time was up, and that they had to get out of there.

Grabbing Russo, lifting him up and slinging him over his shoulders, Frank looked over to Dinah. "Grab the bitch and lets get the fuck outta here, Midani," he shouted over the ever increasing roar of the flames. Dinah was about to argue back, but having now heard it for herself she knew that Frank was right.

Seconds later, the two of them, Dinah now carrying Dumont the same way Frank was with Russo, were tearing back down the corridor heading back the way they had come and towards where they knew the proper way out of the building, a door instead of a misused lift shaft, would be. So focused were Frank and Dinah on the way ahead that they didn't notice the big green coloured barrels marked "C-4" in yellow lettering as they ran past, but they sure as hell learned of it moments later as suddenly, a series of great booming thunderclaps sounded out right behind them, the massive explosions filling their ears and echoing throughout the whole building, but not once did Frank or Dinah look back, both of them concentrating to the max on the way ahead, their only sole focus being to get out of there along with their two captured targets.

Outside, the policemen and women and army soldiers dived to the ground or scrambled for immediate cover behind their vehicles as the whole factory was rocked by a dozen or so gigantic explosions, fireballs rushing out and spreading along it consuming everything, pieces of burning rubble flying into the air and then raining down on the surrounding area and the officers and soldiers as the building now collapsed in on itself, the middle being the first to do so, until over ninety percent of it was nothing more than an enormous pile of bricks, metal and glass, a great plume of black smoke erupting up, with only the front wall itself still standing, flames still burning through destroyed windows.

* * *

A few minutes later, Frank and Dinah, after first handing Russo and Dr Dumont over to the authoritive forces, were walking back through the wreckage filled area away from the destroyed building, both now in the company of Dinah's boss, and the head of the CIA itself, Joe Byrne, a black man with white hair and a moustache, dressed in combat gear himself. Curtis Hoyle had also joined them, he and the other pilot, Howards, having landed their Chinook a good distance away from the area before Curtis had left Howards to finish off the rest while he went to reunite with Frank and Dinah.

"Damn it, Castle, can't we get through at least one night without you going all out with your full Punisher shit?" Byrne shouted at Frank as they walked, passing several members of the New York Fire Department who had now arrived to help with the aftermath of what had happened. "You and Madani both had orders that you were not supposed to come down here, and yet you did exactly that," Byrne went on, "And not only that, but you attempted to catch Russo and the Dumont woman alone, and then you frigging blow up the whole building."

"And what else were we supposed to do, huh?" Frank shouted back, stopping where he was and turning to face Byrne, "You think we were just gonna sit on our arses on the fucking sidelines and let you lot try a fruitless attempt at securing him yourselves? We've been after Russo for months ever since he escaped from the hospital, with the help of Dumont as the bitch told us back in there, and so far you lot ain't been able to get as even nearer close to him as we have."

"Surely even you must know Russo's history with Frank and the part he played in Frank losing Maria, Lisa and Franky Jr in that gang shootout four years ago, Mr Byrne," Curtis spoke up in support of his old friend, their attention briefly drawn as four NYPD officers now appeared, two each restraining Russo and Dumont and forcing them down and forwards against the sloping bonnet of one of the army Humvees.

Dinah now nodded also. "It wasn't even us this time, boss," she spoke in additional support, "He and Dumont stuffed the place with gas and rigged it all up to blow."

"Alright alright," Byrne said, holding up a hand, suddenly looking more tired than angry, "Now where're the kids?"

Dinah sighed. "They're not here," she said.

"What the hell d'you mean they're not here?" Byrne demanded.

"They musta stashed 'em someplace else, that's what," Frank said, gesturing briefly to Russo and Dumont with his left arm.

"Well how do you know they weren't in there? Are you goddam sure?" Byrne demanded persistently.

"Cos we did a fucking thermo check before we dropped in and there was only eight gyus, all part of Russo's gang," Dinah countered back just as angrily.

Laughter drew their attention again, and it was Russo who was doing it. "Wrong again, Franky boy," he said mockingly.

Frank took a couple of steps forward. "You got something to say, eh, Russo?" he snarled. But all Russo and now Dumont did was laugh even more.

"Get them outta here," Byrne snapped at the four officers who held them. Two of them nodded and forced Russo and Dumont fully up again before beginning to drag them away towards an armoured police vehicle.

"You're in for a very full debriefing when we get back to headquarters, Madani," Byrne told Dinah, who just looked back at him with an icy expression.

"Mr Byrne. Mr Byrne," a NYFD man called out as he hurried over, removing his yellow helmet from his head. Everyone, including the restrained Russo and Dumont, turned to him. "Over here. There's bodies everywhere," the fireman explained, "There must be twenty of thirty, all kid sized. They're everywhere."

Frank and Dinah both felt their hearts clench tightly in their chests, and they turned to each other, mouths dropped open in shock, eyes wide. Both of them knew they were approaching the same horrifying conclusion. It couldn't be, no, it couldn't be happening. Thirty parents, thirty families, now deprived forever of their children. Even Curtis was reacting similarly as he breathed out a long breath, running his hand down his face.

"See that, Byrne?" Once again, it was Russo who had spoken. "We told 'em, me and Dumey. But Frank said he didn't care," he went on as the four police officers forced him and Dumont towards the armoured vehicle.

Both Frank and Dinah lunged for them, only for three army soldiers, who had now arrived on the scene, to immediately jump in and restraine them, but Frank and Dinah fought hard against the grip, their attention solely focused on the cackling Russo and Dumont. "You murdered them, Russo," Frank bellowed, the hatred so thick on his face that spit flew from his mouth, "You fucking murdered them, you fucking psycho."

"Oh my god," Dumont said, putting a fake shocked voice, "How could you so selfishly sacrifice all those poor young children for me and Bill? What kind of man and woman d'you think you are, huh?"

"I'm gonna kill you, Dumont," Dinah roared as she fought against the grip of her holders, "I swear if it's the last thing I ever do, I'm gonna rip your heart outta your fucking chest." She turned her hate filled face to Russo, "You too, Russo."

"Then we look forward to it when we spend a little quality together," Russo said as the angry officers holding him and Dumont forced the two of them away. "See ya later, Franky. Dinah sweety," he shouted, still laughing crazily as he and Dumont were dragged away.

Frank and Dinah were still looking after them, the hatred and grief still very plain on their faces, as Byrne spoke again. "If you two got decent lawyers, you'd better call 'em" he said calmly, the two of them looking to him briefly before Frank then looked over to Curtis. The one legged ex-veteran shook his head sadly, a sorry look on his face, knowing that even this was out of his depth.

* * *

**And there we are, first chapter done. I hope I did a good job in doing this as close as could be towards the first bit of Demolition Man, where it's John Spartan and Simon Phoenix- Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes are nothing but wonders in this movie- in the old factory, and that you guys enjoyed it and the great Frank Castle and Dinah Madani's co-operation in it. Doing a fanfic based on an actual movie really does prove extremely advantageous when you can use the movie itself to help with the majority and just add in your personal differences to the story.**

**I wanted to include Krista Dumont in this story, and still as Billy's season 2 lover girl, as well as of course Billy himself cos I quite loved their scenes together in Punisher season 2, and so I thought, why not give Frank and Dinah two adversaries to face after they get out of the cold tub in a few decades time instead of just one? Call it a little step up from Spartan and Phoenix's single person conflict if you like, haha.**

**And so, that wraps up chapter 1 of The Age of the Punisher, and I'll see you next time with chapter 2, which is where we shall have the pleasure of meeting young Amy again. So until next, stay fresh, and adios**


End file.
